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Left 4 Dead 2 Mac and PC Versions are Cross-platform Compatible

Valve confirms that its Mac version of the zombie shooter will be able to play with the PC version.

After yesterday's news that Valve Software is bringing its digital distribution platform Steam to Apple's Mac OS X this year, the publisher's Left 4 Dead blog spurred on the celebrations by revealing that both PC and Mac Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 players will be able to team up together.

Steam on the Mac will behave just like Steam for Windows, but through Steam Play will add cross-platform ownership. That means if you own Left 4 Dead 2 for Windows, then you already own it for the Mac. There's no need to buy it twice! Unless you want to buy it twice, in which case, as long as you're feeling so generous, why not buy it five times?

Plus, Mac and Windows players can go head-to-head, since both Left 4 Deads are cross-platform compatible. Mac owners can even host their own servers and create their own maps, just like Windows users.

The post also notes that the Mac versions of the popular shooters are being written in native Mac code, and will not run under emulation.

More head-cracking coming to Mac later this year.

Bryn says: More good news for Mac players. If Valve's doing this for the Left 4 Dead games, then surely it's only a matter of time before the epic Team Fortress 2 gets the cross-platform treatment. Today is a good day to be a Mac owner (for once!).